Brooklyn Dodgers
The Brooklyn Dodgers are a Premier League team that resides in Brooklyn NY. They are headed by GM Troy Hollingsworth. The owner is Juan González. They are one of the original 10 teams and one of the original 8 that have not moved or changed the name of their team. They did have a change in the GM starting with the 2015 season when Troy Hollingworth took over. They have always resided in the Premier League. The Dodgers have improved upon their record and final position in each of the past four seasons and made their first trip to the playoffs in 2015. They also made it to the final of the CUP in 2015 before losing to Grafton. The Dodgers finished the 2016 Season with a record of 67-41 and finished 3rd in the regular season before losing in the 1st round of the playoffs to eventual champion Louisville. In 2017 the Dodgers won the Cup, finished third at 68-40, and would win the Grand Championship by sweeping Grafton in round #1 and beating Boston in the series 4-games to 2-games for their 1st Grand Championship! Regular and Off Season History * Made the 1st round of the playoffs in 2015 and 2016 * Won the Cup Championship in 2017; Made the 1st round of the playoffs in 2017;Won the Grand Championship in 2017 2017 What a season for the Brooklyn Dodgers! The Bums came out of the gate on fire and if they hadn't had their usual September slump would have run the table with a Triple set of championships. Before the season began the Dodgers made a few very important moves. The 1st was to trade Eli Suzuki (2B) to Atlanta for $20M and a 1st round pick in the draft. Prior to this trade the Bums had no room to add any players and would have had to stay pat from 2016. The $20M allowed for the pickup of several important cogs for the run in 2017. The 1st was OF Ron Bascomme who would go on to hit 20 HRs and would bat over .300; and who would play an incredibly important part in the Grand Championship series. The other two important pickups were Martinez and Foong who would go on and both have great years making the Bum's pitching staff perform at a level never seen before by this team. By early September the Bums were up by 4-games and they were hot having just completed their Championship run in the Cup. In 2016 the Dodgers were knocked out in the 1st round by ML Thunder Bay. This year they took revenge and ran the table winning their 1st Cup Championship. But that was all there was to cheer about in Septembrr. The Dodgers would go on a terrible losing streak of 9-games including being swept by Boston and Grafton. Things looked dire and looked even worse when on the last game of the season Walls was injured. The new look lineup with Bascombe leading off and Williams in CF hadn't played one game all season together and suddenly they were up against Grafton in the 1st round of the playoffs. But the Bums would come out strong. Eliottt would pitch a gem of a game in game 1, and the offense did enough for a 4-1 win. In game two things looked bad as the game was tied 2-2 in the 7th. Both team struggled offensivlyy and the game went into 11 innings when when the world was shocked to see 1B Fernando Gonzalez come to the plate for his 1st at bat of his career. He had hit .393 in the AAA with 4 HRs but that was nothing compared to this situation. With 2-out and nobody on, he swung at the very 1st pitch ever taken by him in the PL and BAM it went 400 feet and out of the ball-park for a walk-off HR win for the Dodgers and a sweep of the team that seems to always beat them! SO the Bums headed to meet up with their arch-rivals the Boston Patriots in the Grand Championship series! Unfortunatlyy by sweeping it meant that Elliot and Ortega were not available for games #1 and #2 and that meant Foong and Martinez would be up against the two Boston Aces in Jose Hernandez and Mendoza. Those two pitchers came into the series with a combined record of 27-8 and ERA's of 2.36 and 2.15. No way were Foong and Martinez going to match up with them right? Well the world was shocked to its very foundation as the Bums took games 1 and 2. In game #1 Foong would pitch a masterpiece with a 9-inning, 3-hit, 1 run game! The Bums would put up 4 runs against Jose in 6-innings and would hold on for the 4-1 win. In game #2 the matchup was even worse. Martinez didn't have a great game as he gave up 4-runs in 6 innings but the Bums would take Mendoza down with 11 hits in 4 2/3 innings and they scored 6-runs against him! Bascomme and Sears would both get HR's in the game. But teh game wasn't over yet. Boston scored in the 7th and 8th inning to tie the game up. To the ninth we went. Williams got out. Davis would single. Egidio got hit by the pitch and was on 1st. Bascombe would single and Davis scored to give the Bums a 1-run lead. In the bottom of the 9th Hinkle would lock the win down with 2-strikeouts and a ground out 1,2,3 inning! The Bums were up 2-0 So now the Bums had Elliot on the mound in game #3... a chance to put the Patriots into a hole they couldn't get out of. Even though Elliot pitched a great game giving up only 2-runs, Ellis and Rob Roy shut the Bums down for a 2-0 win making the series go to 2-1 in favor of the Dodgers. Unfortunatlyy the worse news was that Elliot got injured and would be out the rest of the series! The Bums headed into game #4 feeling like they were the team down 2-1. Ortega was on the mound though and would he ever have a good game! While giving up 10-hits, Ortega was able to go the distance and only give up 2-runs. The Bums got HR's from Wilcox, Sears and Cruz and they cruised to a 6-2 victory and a 3-1 lead. So now we were on to game #5. THe Dodgers played some strategy that almost backfired. They put Martinez on the mound in game #5 against Mendoza to ensure the better matchup in Game #6 with Foong and Ellis. They Dodgers did not want to get to game #7 with a wounded Jose on the mound. Game #5 turned into a little of an offensive game but the Bums lost 5-3 all due to a terrible 5th inning by Martinez. So now we were on Game #6 and things looked bleak when Boston scored 3-runs in the 1st inning on Foong. By the 7th inning the Patriots were up 5-3. In the bottom of the 7th Bascombe would open with a single, but Garcia and Sears both ground out. One on, two outs. Wilcox would be walked. Then Chapman was the hero hitting a double to tie the game! Unfortunatlyy the excitement was short lived as Cahille and Humphreys woudl both give up a run in the top of the 8th and once again Boston was up by 2 runs! Things looked bleak. Roy Robinson was pitching the bottom of the 8th and the bottom of the lineup was up. Not good. Williams would give the bums hope with a leadoff double though! But then Davis and Rivas would both strike out. Game looked over. But Bascombe was back up and he would single scoring Williams. BUT the Bums were still down by a run with two out and only one runner on. Garcia would then single making it 2 runners on, 2 out with Sears due up! Sears would then hit the game winning hit with a single that scored both Bascombe as well as Garcia. Wilcox would add to the lead with a Single that scored Sears. The Bums were suddenly up 9-7 headed to the top of the ninth inning! Once again the ball was in Hinkle's hands! He struck out Perez and then Sacket. Austin Hendersen then ground out andthee Brooklyn Bums had completed the improbalee comeback and the Grand Championship Series win 4 Games to 2!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The OOTP had their 5th different Grand Champion in 5-years! Brooklyn Dodgers were the 2017 Cup and Grand Champions! 2016 The off season began with an amazing flurry of activity as the Bums GM Troy Hollingsworth worked to add enough fire-power and pitching to put the Dodgers over the top after a disappointing conclusing to the 2015 season. Troy added FA Japan sensation E. Suzuki at 2B, traded for 1B Chapman from Atlanta, and aging OF C. Baca. On the pitcingg frong one of the best pitchers in USBA and 2014 Pitcher of the year winner Ray to the starting lineup. During the season a trade brough Antonio Vega into the setup spot for the relief corp. All told Troy added over $40M of salaries to teh team. Expectations were high! Well... some of those expectations came crashing down on just th3 3rd pitch of game one when Ray got injured and would miss the first 6 weeks of the season. Regardless the Dodgers started the year off pretty good as they worked to adjust to the new team dynamic. Unfortunatlyy an old problem rose back up again, the last season collapse. WHile not as bad of a collapse as in 2015, the Bums had a terrible September and stumbled their way into the playoff in a disappointing 3rd place. After having spent $40M on new talent, they finished 2016 exactly where they finished 2015... at 67-41 and losing in round #1 of the playoffs for our 2nd straight 3rd place finish. 2015 The 2015 Season began with a change of management at the top. The new GM, Troy Hollingsworth, was named just prior to the season starting. There was a tremendous amount of turmoil that led to the change and the late start had eveyrone involved from the owner Juan all teh way down to the trainer worried about whether the team could put it together and continue the winning trend from 2014. The shakeup brought immeditee results as Troy went on an aggressive push to fill a few key gaps in the teams offense and pitching corp. Troy started by looking for a full-time 2B and Catcher and found both in aging Gerald Shaw and Angel Vargas. 40-year old Gerald Shaw had played the previous two seasons in Detroit and it looked like his career was over; but the Dodgers brought him to play in Brooklyn with the hope that he would provide some stability at 2B along with some power in the #5 slot behind start Thom Wilcox. Gerald did just that in hitting 20-HR's in just 91 games played. While his batting average was down and he's clearly headed towards retirement having his power behind Wilcox put teams in a bind and led to less walks and more hitting opporunitties. Gerald has several game winning, late inning hits as the season progressed.' Post Season History 2013 - (51-57, 7th) No playoffs. No USBA Cup. 2014 - (64-44 4th) A late season collapse not only took the Dodgers out of playoff contention, but ultimatlyy led to a change in management and a new GM. 2015 - (67-41 2nd) The Dodgers started 2015 out with a slow start due to turmoir in the front office which culmnatedd in the hiring of GM Troy Hollingsworth. Once the team got going, the Dodgers made the playoffs for the first time in their history and played Lexington in the 1st round, ultimately losing two games to one. In addition the Dodgers made the finals in the Cup only to lose two out of three games in a hard fought series with Grafton. 2016 - (67-41 3rd) The Dodgers once again had a great season going until their annual September slump. After taking on $40M in new salaries and having the highest payroll in the PL expectations were much higher than what reality delivered. The Dodgers finished 3rd behind Boston and Louisville and lost 2 games to 1 to finish 3rd in the playoffs for the 2nd year in a row. 2017 - (68-40 3rd) Yep, once again the Dodgers had a great season going until September. BUT they would win the Cup Championship in September and would head into the playoffs with a little momentum. They would then sweep Grafton and beat Boston 4 games to 2 to win the Grand Championship!